World

The step was taken after the World Health Organisation declared that the coronavirus threat was a global health emergency.

The Council members also called for the "immediate stop to all intimidation of humanitarian workers" and "safe and unhindered access" in the north of the country.

Oil prices had fallen nearly 4% through Thursday this week - hitting three-months lows - before rebounding on Friday, with investors and traders worried over how the spreading virus would impact demand for oil.

The task force is led by Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and is coordinated through the National Security Council.

Scientists in Antarctica have recorded, for the first time, unusually warm water beneath the Thwaites glacier.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who visited China this week and held talks with President Xi Jinping, said the meeting was needed because of cases of onward transmission of the virus outside of China.

The bill, if passed by the Senate and signed into law by the president, will also prohibit China from opening any new consulate in the US until Beijing allows Washington to open its diplomatic station in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.

Afghan police and security forces have come under frequent attacks in recent weeks, even as the United States and the Taliban have held talks about a possible troop withdrawal agreement.

The immunity bid seemed doomed to fail from the beginning since Netanyahu, who denies any wrongdoing, lacked sufficient votes in the legislature for approval.

Officials have also announced that all schools will extend their Lunar New Year holiday to mid-February and civil servants have been told to work from home.

In a footnote, the WHO said there had been an 'error' in previous communications published on Thursday, Friday and Saturday which 'incorrectly' said the global risk was 'moderate'.

Manzoor Pashteen, chief of the rights-based alliance PTM, attended a gathering on January 18 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where he had allegedly said the 1973 Constitution violated basic human rights.

Seventeen people are also missing, seven injured, and some 3,500 have been forced to move in more following a series of landslides and house collapses, Civil Defense officials said.

The young man stayed on the line, and when the first officers arrived minutes later at the hotel where the shooting took place, they immediately arrested him outside.

Chinese officials assured all assistance, including food supply, to the Indians who stayed put in the province, the Indian Embassy in Beijing said in a press release on Thursday.

Lebanon PM Hassan Diab, the successor to Saad Hariri who quit as prime minister in late October, vowed to meet demands from the street but demonstrators were unconvinced.